TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY, Miss. (WREG) — Investigators remain tight-lipped about details surrounding the death of Ashley McDonald of Memphis, whose remains were discovered in a remote area of Mississippi and officially identified Wednesday.
The Hickory Hill woman had been missing since November, when she was reportedly going to meet a man in Batesville, Mississippi. The car she was believed to have been driving was found in December, abandoned near Charleston, Mississippi.
But mysteries remain about how she died and who is responsible.
Investigators received a tip that led them to McDonald’s remains on heavily wooded land down a winding gravel road in Tallahatchie County in February.
Tallahatchie County Sheriff Jimmy Fly said his department received an anonymous call Feb 10 advising to come to a location off Providence Road in a remote part of the county outside Charleston.
Fly said he and investigators went to the scene where they found an abandoned house that was burned up. The owner of the property told them the house had not been lived in for eight to 10 years.
He said it was too dark for a complete investigation so they returned the following day on the 11th. Human remains were found and the coroner was called.
Fly confirmed a burned vehicle was recovered from the property but it’s unknown if it is connected to McDonald’s death.
There’s still no word on a suspect, or who McDonald was supposedly going to meet in Batesville in November of last year.
Doyle Ellett, who lives nearby, wondered how someone would pick this desolate area to leave a body.
“For somebody just to come down here and dump a body, had to know something about it somewhere along the line,” Ellett said. “‘Cause you just don’t pull up somewhere and get out unless you know where you’re going to do something like that.”
A neighbor who asked to be identified said she was outside her home in February when the seldom-used gravel road suddenly became very busy.
“We saw the coroner come by, and then the investigators come by,” she said. “About an hour and a half later we saw a wrecker come in, and it came out with a burned vehicle.”
It’s unknown what other evidence was recovered along with McDonald’s remains, or the cause of her death.
“Whoever did this had to know this area, because that road is never traveled on. No one ever goes down it. It’s just kind of weird,” the woman said. “It’s very strange cause we have no activity out here. It’s a dead-end road, so you would never expect anything like that out here. We were definitely shocked.”
WREG reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation for an update but have not heard back.
Sheriff Fly said MPD has provided cell phone records that place McDonald in Tallahatchie County around the time of her disappearance, but he would not elaborate.
He says his “thoughts and prayers” are with Ashley’s family and he pledged to stay on the case until it is solved.
He urged the public to contact investigators if they have information at (662) 647-5511; (662) 647-3700 or (662) 375-8676.